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I read this morning in an article something completely new to me. Apparently, if someone pinches you and you are wearing green, you have the right to pinch them back 10 times. All these years I have been mis-pinched and had no idea! I won’t make the same mistake this year.

3rd Power is a great atmosphere and I can wear whatever I like. I could come in dressed as Hulk Hogan if I wanted. Some companies aren’t as flexible, so you may have to throw on a green tie, some green cuff links, or rock out some other neat green accessories. Whatever you do, make sure you have on your green so you don’t have pinched. The great thing about this holiday is you are free to go as subtle or as wild as you like.

For those of you curious about the pinching tradition:
“One tradition is that the pinching started in the early 1700s, about the time that awareness of St. Patrick’s as a holiday came to the fore, too, in Boston (in the Massachusetts colony). If you wore green it made you invisible to the Leprechauns – else they were out to pinch anyone they could see. So the pinching was to warn you about the Leprechauns.”

Bandanas aren’t just for your head anymore! The more stylish and creative you can rock your bandana, the better! Take a look at these stylish ways to rock bandanas. Send your videos to marketing@3rdpoweroutlet.comand show us how you rock your bandana. We want to see what you can do with a 3rd Power bandana.

Bandana hat…

Bandana Jacket

Bandana Shirt

Bandana Lapel

Bandana Knee Pads

Bandana Flip Flop

Bandana Wallet

Send your videos to marketing@3rdpoweroutlet.comand show us how you rock your bandana. We want to see what you can do with a 3rd Power bandana.

eBay Sellers Split on Changes

The significant changes that eBay announced last week have merchants abuzz as they analyze and react to the impact that the restructured fees, modification of the search and feedback functions, and other changes will have on their sales and profits.Of particular interest have been the proposed changes to fees, which involve lowering the cost of listing items and increasing the commission eBay gets when products are sold. There has also been much discussion in blogs and discussion forums of eBay’s plan to forbid sellers from leaving negative feedback for buyers.While merchants are split on the potential benefits and disadvantages of the changes, there seems to be a general consensus that, whether one supports them or not, the changes represent a major attempt on eBay’s part to alter the way that the marketplace works.”It’s clear eBay is taking it really seriously that they have to improve the buyer experience, and they’re laying the groundwork for getting aggressive about doing it,” said Jonathan Garriss, executive director of the Professional eBay Sellers Alliance (PESA), a group of large sellers that has often been highly critical of eBay.Garriss, also CEO of Gotham City Online, an apparel store on eBay that also has its own site, hopes that the proposed changes will be a first step of others that eBay will take to fix what PESA considers key problems with the marketplace, such as making the buyer experience more convenient and streamlined.To that end, Garriss is encouraged by the proposed incentives to reward merchants who provide superior customer service by giving all qualifying merchants preferred placement in search engine results and offering PowerSellers additional fee discounts based on their customer ratings.

“We don’t want to lose sight of the health of the marketplace, and the changes eBay is making are absolutely in the right direction,” Garriss said in a phone interview.

While he supports the concept of lowering insertion fees and shifting them to the commission, he recognizes that, as proposed, the fee restructuring will greatly hurt some merchants, particularly, in his view, those that sell lower-priced items in high volume via auctions. Garriss hopes that eBay will take this into consideration and possibly adjust the fee changes before rolling them out in a few weeks in the U.S.

Lisa Witt, an eBay PowerSeller for eight years, says the fee changes will not have much of an impact on her bottom line. A seller of fine jewelry, Witt says the listing fees will remain too high even under the new fee structure.

“They need to dramatically change the fee structure if they expect seller growth on the site. eBay should have a flat rate listing fee and it should be the same amount across the board for everyone, and that listing fee should be low,” she wrote in an e-mail interview. “A monthly fee for unlimited listings on eBay would work well too.”

Witt is against the plan to forbid sellers from leaving negative feedback about buyers. This change may lead to buyers using the threat of negative feedback as an extortion tactic to get extras, she said. Buyers may also be disinclined to contact sellers if a disagreement arises, resorting simply to leaving negative feedback, she added. “Feedback is voluntary and should be able to be left by either party as they see fit,” Witt said.

Meanwhile, John Lawson, another PowerSeller and owner of 3rd Power Outlet, is generally positive about the proposed changes. “There’ll be some bumpy roads, but they’re on a path to make this marketplace more vibrant,” Lawson said in a phone interview.

3rd Power Outlet, which sells urban wear and accessories and makes about 80 percent of its sales via eBay, will save about 50 percent in listing fees and, factoring in the increased commission, will have net savings in eBay costs of about 30 percent, Lawson said.

“It’ll have a nice impact on our eBay costs. It’s extra money in our pockets,” Lawson said. While not a major windfall, the savings will allow him to add more listings and do more auctions, he said.

Forbidding sellers from leaving negative feedback about buyers is a good move because, as eBay officials have argued, some sellers have used negative feedback to retaliate against buyers, he said. “A seller doesn’t have to leave any comment about buyers at all,” Lawson said. “The buyer has to be satisfied and must have the ability to leave a true comment.”

Still, he’s not crazy about new proposed fee discounts to PowerSellers based on them attaining certain levels of DSR (Detailed Seller Rating). For example, he finds that it’s off the mark for eBay to have a specific DSR category for shipping and handling, because, as a rule, no one likes to pay for this portion of the transaction. Merchants like himself, who sell to buyers overseas, are in particular disadvantage, because many buyers abroad don’t have a clear understanding of shipping costs from the U.S. to international locations, he said.

For others like Witt, DSR-based fee discounts are welcome. “It’s fine to offer incentives to sellers who strive for excellence. That was a good idea and they should expand on it. Offering rewards has always worked better than punishments,” she said.

These and other differing viewpoints about the plans reflect the ripple effect that eBay changes inevitably have, since there is such a wide variety of merchants on its platform. It remains to be seen whether eBay will want, and be able to refine further, its planned changes to achieve — as much as possible — a happy medium across its vast community of sellers.

It’s not even March yet and the coaches are getting REVVED up. During the UNC Tarheels and Duke games last night, the commentators kept referring to words being exchanged by the coaches. This baffled me because they weren’t even playing each other! I did some digging and got the background.

Tar Heels’ Roy Williams is miffed at comment by Coach K

In a tiff that has added the latest spice to one of college basketball’s most intense rivalries, Williams took exception to a comment made by Krzyzewski on Sunday that the Blue Devils don’t discuss injuries “unlike other schools.”

While Coach K never mentioned the third-ranked Tar Heels specifically, Williams felt the statement was a subtle jab at his team, which has had a much-publicized run of injuries and ailments in the past two weeks.

It was enough to have Williams, in a comment on his weekly radio show Monday, telling an unspecified person to “coach their own damn team, I’ll coach my team.”

On Tuesday, Williams found himself discussing the comments again instead of focusing on the Tar Heels’ game at North Carolina State today.

“It’s not like I’m getting a dadgum plane and flying it around to say, ‘Roy fell against a wall and banged his nose’ or anything,” Williams said in a news conference. “We have to do those things [talk about injuries] and everybody’s hurt. But there’s different stages of being hurt.

“If you’re hurt and missing games, that’s not exactly like having a hangnail. And so we do have some people that are getting hurt and missing games. I don’t think that somebody should say we’re putting it in front of the public.”

When a reporter attempted to ask a follow-up question, Williams said he didn’t want to discuss the comments further and have “battles through the media.”

But when the news conference ended, Williams came back to the topic.

“I said before we played Duke it’s impossible to have any more respect than I do for Mike,” Williams said, “but I felt like that comment was aimed towards us.”

Duke spokesman Jon Jackson declined to comment.

Krzyzewski’s remark came in a radio interview after Duke’s loss at Wake Forest. While noting freshman Nolan Smith had been playing through a knee injury for a few weeks, Krzyzewski added, “unlike other schools, we don’t release our injuries,” according to the Web site for radio station WRBZ-AM in Raleigh.

The next day, Williams said on his weekly radio show: “Regardless of what somebody else says about they have injuries, too, which is a bunch of bunk, so I don’t give a crap what somebody else says, but coach their own damn team, I’ll coach my team — in case anybody has heard some statements about that.”

The comments between the Hall of Fame coaches adds to a history that includes a heated exchange during a 2000 NCAA tournament game between Duke and Williams’ Kansas squad in which the coaches had to be separated by officials. Last season, things got chilly after a flagrant foul by Duke’s Gerald Henderson broke the nose of North Carolina’s Tyler Hansbrough.

Recently, the coaches described a relationship that was respectful and cordial but not especially close.”

Here are a few basic smart shopping tips that you should apply when making your purchases:

1. Sign up for special or “unadvertised” deals.

2. Avoid crowds by researching and shopping online.

3. Buy at the end of the season.

4. Stock up when prices are low.

5. Remember the “Rule of Three”: If an item has three different ways it can be used, you will not be wasting your money.

6. Shop for gifts year round.

7. Return purchases that do not meet your expectations.

If it sounds like most of these fit the 3rd Power Outlet model, you’re right! We strive to make you happy with your purchases and a smart, efficient shopper. The biggest take-away today should be to shop at the end of the season. We’re currently holding an end of winter clearance and winter items are marked WAY down. You can get beanies, ski hats, scarf sets, etc for rock bottom prices!